That’s just the cost of education; there are plenty of other child-related expenses (food, clothes, nappies, housing, childcare, entertainment, lost income for the primary carer…) that are almost unavoidable. And in addition to these direct expenses there is also at least one other cost that we don’t always think about: the superannuation that you might otherwise have received.

A new Colonial First State report (the Power of Closing the Gap) has reiterated a well-known fact that there a significant gender gap in superannuation balances. Across all age groups, according to Colonial First State, the median super balance of females is A$30,000 compared to A$46,000 for males, a super gap of A$16,000 or 35%. And the older a couple is, the greater that gap.

So what does that mean for superannuation?

For workers eligible for super, the current minimum contribution rate that an employer pays is 9.50% of your ordinary time earnings. It might not sound like much, but effectively missing out on that 9.5% of salary, as well as missing out on the earnings that that money would have attracted over the next thirty years between having children and retirement actually does add up to a lot of money.

How much? CANSTAR has calculated that 5 years out of the workforce from age 30 to 35 could equate to a $341,000 hit to a primary carer’s superannuation account balance, in today’s dollars, by the time they retire. That’s based on starting work at age 21 on a salary of $45,000, with a 2% increase in annual income. Oh, and a super fund earning 7% after tax and receiving the 9.5% employer contribution, increasing to 12% contribution by 2025. Obviously the more that you (or your super fund) earns, the greater the potential hit.

This is generally where readers protest that they don’t even have that much in super, let alone would be able to lose that much in super. But that’s called the power of compounding returns: the fact that earnings on earnings on earnings, over 30 years, adds up to a lot of money.

The same principle holds true in reverse, which is why a $300,000 home loan over 30 years at minimum repayments may cost you around $580,000, even at a low interest rate of 5 percent. For example:

Please note that all information about performance returns is historical. Past performance should not be relied upon as an indicator of future performance; unit prices and the value of your investment may fall as well as rise.

This advice is general and has not taken into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Consider whether this advice is right for you. Consider the product disclosure statement before making a purchase decision. Canstar provides an information service. It is not a credit provider, and in giving you information about credit products Canstar is not making any suggestion or recommendation to you about a particular credit product. Statistics referenced on this page have been verified by Canstar Research. Research provided by Canstar Research AFSL and Australian Credit Licence No. 437917.